Orvieto

Departure from Rome–Fiumicino Airport “Leonardo da Vinci”, where a private chauffeur at your full disposal will take you on a full-day tour to the charming city of Orvieto. You will travel along the A1 motorway with a planned stop for a coffee break at a service station. The drive takes approximately 1 hour 30 minutes. Orvieto sits atop a tuff cliff immersed in the Umbrian countryside of the province of Terni. The natural setting is one of the most beautiful in Italy; the town appears from a distance like a mirage on an emerald plain. You will stop by the station and take the funicular to reach the town centre at the summit, 325 metres above sea level. On the ascent you pass the splendid gardens of Fortezza Albornoz (1359, rebuilt 1449). Taking the lane to the left of the funicular station brings you to St Patrick’s Well (Pozzo di San Patrizio), one of Orvieto’s most characteristic sites. Built in the 1500s by Antonio da Sangallo the Younger on commission from Pope Clement VII, who had taken refuge in Orvieto after the Sack of Rome in 1527, the well is about 60 metres deep and features two concentric spiral staircases of 248 steps lit by seventy windows leading down to the bridge above the water. You can descend into the tuff well and make a wish. Thanks to its strategic position, Orvieto was chosen by ancient peoples as a strategic settlement since antiquity.